


Chapter 7: The Sin Bin - Post-Script: Sleeping Out

by PaxDuane



Series: Alola Family -- Legends and All [6]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Crushes, Dissociation, Gray-aromantic, M/M, PTSD, Pikachu signs of affection, children are molded by the ways they are broken, g rated scent mixing, gray-sexual, implied anyways, past child abuse - implied, past spousal abuse - implied, these boys have been through some shit, very different shit but shit nonetheless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-17 18:28:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21058976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaxDuane/pseuds/PaxDuane
Summary: A Post-Script to Chapter 7 of Alola Family -- Legends and All.Satoshi and Hau have a sleepover in the Ruins of Conflict and have a couple of tense conversations.Everyone is a little bit broken.





	Chapter 7: The Sin Bin - Post-Script: Sleeping Out

**Author's Note:**

> Y'all are gonna kill me.

Satoshi had been meandering around outside, avoiding Rotom until the sentient pokedex went back to check on the professor. He’d even left Pikachu sleeping in the house, after explaining MewTwo to the professor.

He’d been kind of surprised that Hau answered, let alone suggested sleeping out in the Ruins of Conflict. Honestly, sleeping in that cavern was probably the best thing for him. The Ruins were kind of comforting on their own, but sleeping out in a cave is something familiar that he hasn’t gotten since coming to Alola.

So he bustles himself off to the Ruins once Hau suggests it, half out of it from the buzz of one-on-one contact with MewTwo and then having to explain the cloned Legendary to his uncle and then the normal hustle and bustle of the Pokemon. He’s not alone and without pokemon—he has his backpack and Rowlet in it.

And he’s going to meet Hau.

He had told Mallow he wasn’t sure if he wanted a relationship on top of everything else he had going on and he was sticking with that. But it was like he and Hau were opposite ends of two magnemite.

Hau is already airing out the sleeping bags with his Raichu when Satoshi hikes up into the Ruins.

“Hey!” Satoshi calls, putting on a burst of speed to tackle the other boy, slinging one arm around his shoulders.

“Alola,” Hau says, turning his head to grin at Satoshi. His grin falls though.

Satoshi’s own grin is weak, and he’s pale.

“You okay?” Hau asks, a tentative offer for Satoshi to vent. When the other boy only blinks slowly, he pokes his side. “Ash?”

Satoshi coughs out a laugh and detaches himself from Hau, then shrugs off his backpack and gently sets it on the ground of the Ruins before sitting himself. “I’ll be fine.” He unzips the backpack and his sleeping Rowlet rolls out and past the camping lantern that Hau has set up, causing a much more honest chuckle.

Hau frowns again, staring at Satoshi, then huffs and tosses one of the sleeping bags onto him and is gratified by the boy’s squawk.

Satoshi tugs the sleeping bag off of his face with an exaggerated pout, but it dissolves into a real grin after a moment.

“You hungry?” Hau asks, changing the topic in an attempt to engage his…friend? Crush?

Satoshi’s eyes actually brighten. “Yeah definitely.”

Hau sits down and pulls over his own backpack, which he’s packed with a couple sandwiches and berries. He tosses a sitris berry to Raichu and pokes Satoshi’s Rowlet with another. The grass quill pokemon wakes up with a sleepy squawk.

Satoshi is actually slow in eating his sandwich, which worries Hau a little. Since meeting the other boy, he’d only seen Satoshi eat widely and rapidly. He’s only halfway through when it darkens enough for Hau to turn on the camping lantern, illuminating the space around them.

After he finishes his sandwich, Satoshi looks up to see Hau midway through his sandwich and staring at him. He smiles tensely and rubs the back of her neck. “Sorry, I’m really out of it. It happens, sometimes.”

Hau shrugs, thinks about not continuing the topic, but decides to anyways. “It’s like you’re the polar opposite. Like, you’re barely reacting to anything. That’s not—that’s not good.”

Satoshi stretches and Rowlet flutters into his lap. “I know it’s not. Like I said, it happens.” He grimaces. “Did your grandfather tell you anything about my last trip here to the Ruins?”

Hau blinks. His grandfather had told Hau a couple things, simple things and not so simple things but nothing that could explain… Oh. That. “He told me your name is actually Satoshi, but you use a Galarian name when you’re out of Kanto and Johto like most of the people from there… And he told me you were involved with the incident five years ago. With the Legendary Birds and the Beast of the Sea.”

He’d been told to not change how he treated the other boy based on that, except to be delicate about asking about _any_ legendary pokemon.

Satoshi breaths out loudly. “Yeah, that’s… Those are both true. But Lugia was just the beginning, you know? How sometimes things just keep happening until they become normal.”

Hau thinks back to early memories—to fighting and broken glass and screams until his mother was dead of alcohol poisoning and his devastated father ran for Kanto, leaving Hau with Hala. “Yeah. I know. And it takes a lot to turn back around and say ‘That’s not normal; this isn’t normal.’”

Satoshi laughs, but it’s a sad sound.

Hau puts his sandwich back in the Tupperware container he’d brought it up in and holds out his arms.

Satoshi stares at him for a moment, not quite comprehending, then shoves himself into Hau’s arms, throwing them back onto Hau’s sleeping bag.

That’s when it happens again. The shockwave, the gleam of white stone and crackle of yellow, and Hau gasps as Satoshi turns over, still in his arms, as the Ruins are filled in and the Temple of Conflict shines brightly.

“This is…” Hau murmurs.

“You can see it?” Satoshi asks.

Hau nods, gaping, as he stares at the ceiling until Satoshi follows his gaze.

Above them is a mural of a storm. The yellow figure of Kapu-Kokeku descends from the clouds and the blue head of Lugia rises from the churning waves. Between them is a bright light. A hope, Satoshi knows.

He buries his head in the crook of Hau’s neck and the Temple disappears.

“Wow,” Hau says, breathless. Then he giggles as Satoshi attempts to make himself comfortable, rubbing his cheek against Hau’s jaw. “What are you, a pikachu?” he asks, laughing.

Satoshi pushes himself up and grins at the other boy, then dives in with fingers skirting over Hau’s sides, drawing out more laughter. Hau fights back, bringing delighted giggles out of Satoshi and shoving him over onto the ground of the Ruins, triumphant as he catches Satoshi’s hands in his own.

Distantly, there’s thunder and rain that they can hear now, between trying to catch their breath.

It’s nice, just like Satoshi had said it would be, Hau notes.

Then, Satoshi surges up to rub their cheeks together again and the giggling starts over again for a moment before he pulls back.

This time, his grin is true but exhausted. “We should sleep.”

Hau sags, feeling the weight of the day as well. “Yeah.”

The two separate to set up the sleeping bags a little better, a little closer to each other. Raichu and Rowlet huddle between them, the little bird using the electric mouse as a heater.

“I…” Satoshi pauses. “I didn’t cross a line, tonight, did I?”

Hau pauses and props his head up with his hand. “I think we’ve moved a little from where we were before but… We were at a different place before than I’ve ever been with anyone.”

Satoshi nods. “My friends in other regions would call me childish and say I didn’t get it. I got it, kind of, but I was never really…” He huffs. “I think you’re the first person I’ve really liked, but I’m bad at…emotions, communication, anything you need for a healthy relationship…” He burrows into the sleeping bag. “I don’t want to hurt you and I think I would.”

Hau blinks, the memories from earlier pushing back at him, and he smiles. “Thanks, then.”

Satoshi looks up, surprised. “For what?”

“For not wanting to hurt me.” He reaches over, finger poised to turn off the camping lantern. Before he does, though, he leans over their pokemon and kisses Satoshi’s cheek. “It means a lot.” With that he turns out the lantern and quickly lays back down with a cheerful, “Sleep well!”

Satoshi squawks in indignation, but settles down with a quiet laugh. “You too. And, uh. You can call me Satoshi if you want. I’d like that.”

Hau has to stifle a squeak.

***

The next morning, the two boys head back out into the wilds of Melemele without a word, just laughter over Rowlet’s narcolepsy and awe at the vibrancy of the greenery that the storm gave them. As they’re coming down the hill, the spot Hala and Kukui talking frantically.

“Alola!” Satoshi yells, making the two jump. A blur of yellow takes off up the path to them only to end up on Hau’s shoulder, rubbing cheeks with him.

When Pikachu realizes his mistake, he chatters furiously at Satoshi once firmly back on his shoulder, rubbing cheeks with his trainer aggressively.

“I told you,” Hau says smugly.

Satoshi rolls his eyes and grins.

**Author's Note:**

> Things this establishes!  
Hau's only-touching-with-a-10-foot-pole backstory!  
Hau and Satoshi using Pikachu/Raichu cheek rubbing to show affection and confuse their pokemon!


End file.
